New fully digital timber stockyard opened in Amstetten

The Austrian Federal Forests (Österreichische Bundesforste), the State of Lower Austria and Austropapier are opening a new hub for timber logistics in collaboration with the Rail Cargo Group, which is providing logistical support.

Opening this fully digital stockyard means that wood transport in the immediate vicinity of logging roads in the region of Amstetten can be sustainably shifted on to the environmentally friendly rails. This new linchpin of timber logistics will not only relieve the market in a region that is severely affected by climate change; it also represents an important mark of solidarity with the entire timber supply chain.

Loading capacities have already increased by 50% thanks to the Smart GigaWood wagons that were developed as recently as 2019. Old railway tracks on the ten hectare site of the former sawmill have been put back in action in order to connect the new stockyard to the Western Railway line. State-of-the-art equipment and the railway line connection mean that up to 40 wagons a day can be loaded when running at full capacity. Successful test runs were carried out a few weeks ago; the new stockyard will be fully operational from July.

Rail Cargo Group closes a big gap

The Rail Cargo Group provides environmentally friendly transport services for every stage of the timber supply chain from manufacture right through to woodworking at the workshop, Thomas Kargl, Executive Board Member of the Rail Cargo Group, says: “The ‘green’ logistics services we provide at the RCG make timber haulage fast and also sustainable. Papierholz Austria has been one of our top customers in the timber industry for 25 years now, and we transport 315,000 tonnes of wood for the Austrian Federal Forests every single year. We are the strong partner for the domestic wood industry – right now and in the future”.